This is Central Asia. The ‘Stans. Never well understood, but absolutely worth an attempt to understand.

A glimpse of Pik Lenin (23,000+ feet) along the Pamir Highway near the Kyrgyz-Tajik border.

Although a visit to Southeast Asia kicked off our around-the-world journey back in 2006, the former Soviet Union – the Caucasus and Central Asia (known as the ‘Stans) — was the real impetus for our trip. Before we’d set off, Audrey had worked with these countries (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan) remotely from a desk in Prague for over four years. During that time, she’d built up an appetite to experience them firsthand.

I, too, was game. But our guidebook made the region sound somewhat menacing.

Truth was, we weren’t really quite sure what to expect.

Stroking a lonely wooly Bactrian camel in Tajikistan’s high desert.

Some of you may be thinking and many of you have asked: “Central Asia? Is there really anything to see and do there? Is it safe?”

Yes, and yes. Now let’s go!

Beautiful, Offbeat: Central Asia Travel Overview

If you’re looking for something off-path in all ways literal and figurative, Central Asia makes a good travel candidate. Filled with incredible mountain landscapes, friendly people and quirky experiences of the Soviet hangover variety, Central Asia is hard to beat when it comes to raw, discover-the-world potential. To this day, it remains one of our favorite and most fulfilling travel experiences.

Because tourism is still relatively new across Central Asia (for us, this was one of its appeals), there isn’t the same fully fleshed out tourism infrastructure that you’ll find throughout the rest of Asia. So you’ll have to make an effort. The flip side is that you’ll find friendly locals to shepherd you to your next — and often unexpected — adventure.

The Kyrgyz shepherd, holder of great life and travel wisdom.

Still curious and undaunted about what you’ll find in the ‘Stans of Central Asia? From west to east, here’s a country-by-country beginner’s guide to some of our favorite travel spots and experiences in the region. (Note: In this piece, we’ll only cover Central Asia. We’ll cover The Caucasus region in a separate piece.)

One of Turkmenistan’s collapsed natural gas craters. But this one’s not on fire.

From a red tape and visa perspective, Turkmenistan is the trickiest of all Central Asian countries to navigate. But don’t cross it off your list immediately, for it will likely surprise you and reward you for your perseverance.

Caspian Sea: If you have some flexibility in your schedule and you find yourself in Azerbaijan looking for a way out, we highly recommend taking the overnight ferry across the Caspian Sea from Baku,Azerbaijan to Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan. Talk about a stunning and peaceful way to transition to a new region. Just stay away from the woman attendant on board who looks like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
More reading: Reflections Crossing the Caspian Sea

Ashgabat:

Ashgabat’s Kipchak Mosque: Turkmenbashi’s final resting place.

Las Vegas meets Pyong Yang in Turkmenistan’s quirky capital city of white marble, fountains and 20-mile “health walks.” While the rotating gold statue of Turkmenbashi is no longer on display, there are still plenty of reminders of Turkmenistan’s bizarre, self-consumed former leader (let us know if Turkmenbashi vodka is still on the market – good stuff).

Ashgabat’s Tolkuchka market on Sundays is the largest open air market in Central Asia; worth getting yourself out of bed to get there early. And if you look hard enough, you’ll find an active disco scene complete with Russian mafia, gorgeous women and enough drama to pack a Brazilian soap opera.
More reading: Ashgabat, The City of Love: A Scavenger Hunt

Gonur Depe, Merve and Konye-Urgench:

Merv: More camels than tourists at this Silk Road City.

Kick up 1000s of years of relatively undiscovered history as you walk just about any of Turkmenistan’s archaelogical sites. Check out the mostly unexcavated site of Gonur Depe where you’re literally sifting through 4,000 years of history. Yes, 4000 years! Then, stop by the cities of Merv and Konye-Urgench for a taste of Turkmenistan’s station on the Silk Road.
More reading: Kicking Up 4,000 Years of History in Turkmenistan

Darvaza Gas Crater:

The Darvaza gas crater, on fire 24×7.

Standing at the edge of a collapsed, blazing natural gas crater in the Karakum desert is one part hellishly hot, another part downright cool, particularly when you appreciate it from a tent, full moon overhead. Along the way there, pop by the oasis village of Jerbent for a peek at desert life that feels Thunderdome-ish and otherworldly.
More reading: Natural and Not-so-Natural History Sites in Turkmenistan

A hearty welcome to Bukhara, Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan offers some of the best-developed tourism infrastructure in the region thanks to its Silk Road cities. A range of guest houses, train connections, and tour companies connect the region. During the time of our visit, Tashkent was the city with the best internet connectivity; its selection of wifi cafes made it an ideal place to catch up on our work.

Classic Silk Road: Khiva, Bukhara, and Samarkand

The Registan – Samarkand, Uzbekistan

Get your fill of Silk Road snapshots and history along Uzbekistan’s Silk Road route: Khiva, Bukhara, Samarkand, and Shakhrisabz. Although Samarkand is the most architecture-loaded, each of the cities is worth a look. Our favorite is Bukhara, perhaps because it feels like living history. People still live in many of its old buildings, and merchants still bargain in the same market areas, much as they might have a thousand years ago. Additionally, it’s hard to find a friendlier and more colorful fresh market than the one on the outskirts of town.

And if you time it right (August time frame), you’ll catch the drivers of the Mongol Rally and their beat up cars — and refashioned ice-cream trucks.
More reading: A Real Peek at Uzbekistan’s Silk Road: A Reflective Scavenger Hunt

Nukus and Moynaq:

Mizdakhan Cemetery, one of the most fascinating and elaborate cemeteries around.

Nukus doesn’t have any Silk Road glam, but it is home to the eclectic Savitsky Museum, which somehow escaped Soviet censorship. It’s also home to Mizdakhan, an extraordinary cemetery featuring mini-mosques and marble- and stone-engravings of the dead.

Once a fishing town on the Aral Sea, Moynaq is today’s bone-dry testament to man’s stunning ability to prosecute war on nature. Rusted boats lay across land that was once shoreline, but is now desert. In full disclosure, we did not visit here but after talking with other travelers we regret this decision.
More reading: A Real Peek at Uzbekistan’s Silk Road: A Reflective Scavenger Hunt

Even though we enjoyed two “we’re going to die here” experiences in a relatively short time — crossing the land border from Uzbekistan and getting lost in the Tian Shan mountains – we still recommend you visit Kazakhstan. Among other things, you’ll find that the film Borat is more than a little shy of reality.

Big Almaty Lake and Kosmostancia:

Big Almaty Lake, Kazakhstan. Yep, it’s that blue. No foolin’.

The Tian Shan mountains just outside Almaty provide some great hiking opportunities. Take a city bus into the base of the mountains and follow the trails up or walk atop a giant water pipe to Big Almaty Lake and enjoy the mountains and its surreal blue water.

After the lake, continue further up the mountain path for more surreal, this time of a Soviet variety, at Kosmostancia. Don’t be deterred by the rusted vehicles and abandoned look of the place. Astronomers still live and work in those hills and they usually have a few rooms to rent out. Try to squeeze in a stargazing session with the mad Russian astronomer (if he’s still there) and his big telescope. If you continue over the mountain pass, be sure to carry a real trekking map. We didn’t and very nearly disappeared, for real.
More reading: Big Almaty Lake and Kosmostancia: The Hike and The Observatory and Getting Lost in the Tian Shan Mountains (or, How Kazakhstan Nearly Killed Us)

If you must choose one country to visit in Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan might just be it. Not only is the country over 90% mountainous and studded with beautiful landscapes, but the traditional nomadic culture and people are warm and welcoming. Kyrgyzstan also has a terrific community-based tourism (CBT) network throughout the country that makes it easy to connect and interact with locals, stay in yurts, and take mountain treks on horseback.

Song Kul Lake:

Combine great mountain scenery and a glimpse into rural Kyrgyz life with a three-day horse trek from Kochkor to Song Kul Lake. Sleep in yurts along the trail and on the edge of the lake. In the spring to summer months, you’ll run into shepherds tending their animals in the hills. We went in October and were blessed with a view of the first snows on the lake and the animal drive as shepherds took their animals to their villages in lower altitudes for the winter. Even if you have no experience on a horse (like us), you’ll be able to manage. After all, we did. Just don’t expect to walk normally the next day.
More reading: A Goat and Five Fingers: A Ramadan Experience in Kyrgyzstan

Karakol Animal Market:

We arrived in Karakol, a sleepy town on the eastern fringe of Kyrgyzstan in time for its Sunday animal market. With an early rise, we enjoyed the scene as old men in kalpaks (traditional Kyrgyz hats) bargain away for stubborn donkeys and fat-rumped sheep.
More reading: Kyrgyzstan: Women Can Do It and Kyrgyzstan: Best Tourist Sights and Landscapes

Altyn Arashan:

Hike around 4-5 hours from the town of Karakol to Altyn Arashan, a natural mountain hot spring. Stay for the night and you can spend as long as you’d like relaxing in pools of piping hot water. Feels sooooo good after a day of hiking. Stars up there are also amazing.

If you have more time, continue in the morning to Ala Kol Lake. Although we and our companion had to turn back because of a blizzard whiteout, other friends all had great things to say about the trek.
More reading: Kyrgyzstan: Best Tourist Sights and Landscapes

Lake Issyk Kul and Manzhyly:

A meal in a cozy Kyrgyz yurt.

Various subranges of the Tian Shan mountains surround both the southern and northern shores of Issyk Kul, the world’s second largest mountain lake. The point? You never have a bad view when you’re at Issyk Kul.

Hook up with CBT to spend a night at Manzhyly on the southern shore of the lake. Do some hiking, talk with a friendly shepherd, eat a wonderful homecooked Kyrgyz meal and sleep as soundly you ever have in the dark womb of a Kyrgyz mountain yurt.
More reading: A Perfect Day in Kyrgyzstan

A group of women take a photo break in the Tajik Pamirs.

Unlike their neighbors, Tajiks are of Persian rather than Turkic origin. For this reason, Tajikistan features cultural, physical and culinary differences from the rest of Central Asia.

Pamir Highway Road Trip:

12th century Yamchun Fort. An average view along Tajikistan’s Pamir Highway.

Most of our time in Tajikistan was spent in the Pamir Mountains on the border with Afghanistan. We began our journey across the Pamir Highway in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, which we highly recommend for a view of Peak Lenin (7135 meters or 23406 feet) on the way to the border.

Make your way from the high desert outpost of Murghab through a series of mountainous roads with views of the Hindu Kush in Pakistan to Langar at the start of the lush Wakhan Valley. The local Pamiri people are renowned for being some of the friendliest people on earth; they will literally try to give you the shirt the back if you need it. Try to fit in a visit to Bibi Fatima hot springs (supposedly good for fertility) and the nearby ruined fortress. You’ll be peeking into Afghanistan across the river the whole way.

To visit the Pamir Mountains, you have to get a GBAO permit at the same time you apply for your visa. When we did this at the Tajik Embassy in Kyrgyzstan it was a rather easy process.
More reading: The Pamir Mountains and Wakhan Valley – People and Landscape, Stories and Highlights from the Pamir Mountains, Pamir Mountains and Wakhan Valley: Transport, Accommodation and Food

Tajik Air Over the Pamir Mountains:

Fly unpressurized in Tajik Air’s itty bitty lunchbox of a plane.

Easily the most frightening and stunning flight we’ve ever been on. In an unpressurized plane where person and bag has been weighed before takeoff, we flew through (not over, through) the on the way from Khorog in the Pamir Mountains to Tajikistan’s capital city of Dushanbe.

Once you get to Dushanbe, we recommend spending time in the fresh markets – people are incredibly friendly and curious.
More reading and video: Badakhshani Express: Scraping the Pamir Mountains with Tajik Air

Practical Advice for Planning a Trip to Central Asia

Planning a Central Asian itinerary: If you don’t have a few months to spend in the region, let your theme of choice (e.g, Silk Road, desert, mountains) guide you. Then, find a country (or two) that suits your needs. You can cross over from country to country by flight or land transport. For more ideas on where and what to do and see in Central Asia, read: Golden Camel Awards: Sights, People and Scenery

When to go: This region is great from springtime to fall, but best to be avoided in the wintertime unless you favor frigid and gray. We traveled through Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in July/August. Although it was the hottest time of year (100+ F), the dry desert heat didn’t bother us. Mountain areas in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (e.g., Pamirs, Wakhan Valley, Tian Shan) can become numbingly cold as early as October.

Autumn in Tajikistan’s Wakhan Valley.

Safety: We never felt unsafe in the three months we traveled through Central Asia and we were on every form of public and private transport available. Our guidebook made us fearful of police harassment and bribery, but we never once encountered this in three months. We were asked for our papers once, from a policeman in the Tashkent metro, whereupon we pretended not to speak Russian. He apologized and went on his way. If you must provide your passport, begin with a paper copy first.

Language in Central Asia: Each country in this region has their own language (e.g., Turkmen, Kyrgyz, etc.) that use either the Latin or Cyrillic alphabet. However, Russian is the lingua franca. Many young people are learning English, but don’t expect a lot of English speakers anywhere. Our suggestion is to learn your numbers and the Cyrillic alphabet (it really isn’t that hard) so you can read street and bus signs. Carry a dictionary in case you get stuck.

Visas and bureaucracy: The visa process is one of the biggest barriers to travel in Central Asia. Bureaucracy and cost can sap both your savings and patience. We arranged our visas independently as we traveled (i.e., Turkmenistan visa in Yerevan, Armenia, Uzbekistan visa in Baku, Azerbaijan, Kazakh and Kyrgyz visas in Uzbekistan, Tajik visa in Kyrgyzstan). If you are setting off from your home country, we would advise you to take care of them all ahead of time, if possible. For all the nitty gritty details read: Sex and the Central Asian Visa

Accommodation: Hotels and guest houses in Central Asia run the gamut from pleasant to appalling. In Kyrgyzstan, we used the Community-Based Tourism (CBT) program to book family homestays throughout the country. Uzbekistan also features guest houses for all budgets in the Silk Road cities. Tashkent can get expensive. In the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan, the only place with proper hotels is Khorog. You’ll likely have to stay with families in the other areas (one of life’s greatest experiences). Accommodation in Kazakhstan can be shockingly expensive, and you may find yourself sleeping in a brothel if all are booked. For the best and worst of logistics across Central Asia, read: The Golden Camel Awards: Logistics

Transportation:

Planning our route along the Pamir Highway from Kyrgyzstan to Tajikistan.

Transportation in Central Asia is surprisingly good and accessible – buses, mashrutkas (minivans), trains and shared taxis run throughout the region, with the exception of along the Pamir Highway/GBAO. In general, shared taxis are a bit more expensive than buses or mashrutkas, but they are often the fastest way to get you to your destination. Hitchhiking is also common in some areas, and may be required along the Pamir Highway for those on a tight budget.

Food: You don’t come to Central Asia for the food. Expect to find a lot of mutton, which is best eaten piping hot before the fat can congeal on the roof of your mouth. Vegetarianism is not widely understood. For more details on what to expect from food across Central Asia, read: Golden Camel Awards: Food and Markets and Central Asian Food: The Good, the Bad, and the Inedible

Women Traveling in Central Asia: What’s it like traveling as a woman through Central Asia? These countries are Muslim, but of a more moderate, open and secular variety than you might find in parts of the Middle East. This combined with Soviet and Russian influence, can make Central Asia feel like the land of paradox.

You will find village women in colorful headscarves, but you’ll also find city women wearing mini-skirts so mini that you might be wondering if someone ran out of fabric. Audrey always kept her legs and shoulders covered and wore a head scarf in a few parts of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, partly to fit in and partly to help with the fierce heat and sunshine. Local women absolutely loved this and Audrey and her headscarf became an attraction and a point of tea, conversation and connection. We met several solo female travelers in Central Asia and they felt the same.

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Any questions about traveling in Central Asia? Drop us a comment or send us an email and we’ll do our best to help.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 41 comments

Meanwhile, the situation continues to simmer in Thailand. In response to a recent U.S. State Department travel warning for the country, one Twitter user indicated she would “…tread lightly in Thailand.” Some travelers in Bangkok were almost upbeat, claiming that the situation is almost back to “normal.” Another traveler who had seen both peaceful and violent protests in Bangkok was less convinced. Point is: Thailand is not dropping off travel lists anytime soon.

Differing Branding, Different Perceptions
We’ve been to both Thailand and Kyrgyzstan and we love them both. Not to make light of the situation in Thailand, but if I were forced to choose a country to visit in the midst of protest, Thailand would be it.

But why is it that Kyrgyzstan’s recent developments indicate a country that has “turned” or is on the edge of an abyss, whereas Thailand’s protests represent a blip on the return to normal? Sure, Kyrgyzstan has been a corrupt political mess for a while and its economy has suffered, but it’s not as if its streets have a recent history of running blood red.

Despite its recent coups and troubles, Thailand is a known quantity. More people have traveled there and know it as the “Land of Smiles” and white sand beaches. Don’t get me wrong – that image matches what we experienced. We recommend it heartily and have even considered it as a potential home base one of these days. But the perception of Kyrgyzstan suffers disproportionately because it is relatively unknown and located in Central Asia, a region few outside international relations departments and think tanks know much about.

Stereotypes and Prejudice
Prior to recent events in Bishkek, relatively well-seasoned travelers we spoke to tended to express concern when we recommended Kyrgyzstan and highlighted it as one of our favorite countries. As with the rest of Central Asia, the common response: “But is it safe there?”

We even sang the praises of Kyrgyzstan, its people and its community tourism infrastructure to a well-traveled American when she asked for new destinations to consider. She responded with: “But, isn’t it Muslim?”

Need she say more?

So where is all this coming from? Media plays a part, for sure. Feeding on the value of reporting crisis, media outlets usually only give airtime to certain countries when there’s violence or a natural disaster to report. Add to this the insidious mechanism of hyperbole which leads to the perception that the political mayhem or earthquake in question swallowed the entire country whole.

The Kyrgyzstan We Remember
What usually never makes the news, especially in today’s era of dwindling budgets for international coverage, are the human interest vignettes and images that capture the life of ordinary people in these countries.

There’s a reason we spent close to two months in Kyrgyzstan. The people there continually reminded us of the meaning of family and they often illustrated how communities could work together. During our travel throughout the country, we were plied with kindness, food and offers for help in markets, on public buses, and in the middle of nowhere. Kyrgyzstan is where we learned about nomadic, pastoral cultures; it’s where we first slept in a yurt. It’s where we ate our first goat and it’s where we continually were awed by mountain vistas, which in retrospect are rather underrated.

In thinking about Kyrgyzstan and assembling our best photos into the photo essay and slideshow below, we are reminded once again of the beauty of this country and its people.

Photo Slideshow of Kyrgyzstan

Note: If you don’t have a high speed internet connection or you would like to read the photo captions, check out our The Kyrgyzstan We Know photo essay.

The Future?
We are uncertain as to what the future holds for both countries. If we had to guess, the road forward for Thailand is a bit smoother than the one for Kyrgyzstan. As one of Audrey’s friends responded from the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek today, “It was horrible…but everything is OK now. But I fear that the former president will not let go of power easily.”

In any event, the public perception hole Kyrgyzstan has dug for itself is made that much deeper by sensationalism, prejudice and fear of the unknown.

As a traveler absorbing more and more of the world each day, I have what might seem like a rather naïve question: How do we overcome this?

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 22 comments

Why so much bouncing around?

We tend to write a few pieces about a location as we travel through, only to write a bunch more upon reflection. We’ve been writing a lot about Central Asia recently, not only because we feel that it’s a region worth sharing, but also because writing about our experiences and what we’ve learned from them is our way to process it all.

Because we conclude our written and photographic tour of Central Asia with this post, we thought it would be useful to display an interactive Google Map marked with each stop of our journey through this little known region. We floated into Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan on July 21, 2007 and crossed into China from Kyrgyzstan over the Torugart Pass on October 25, 2007, giving us just over three months to gather our impressions. Even with this relatively significant amount of time, a long list of places we’d like to visit “next time” remains.

If you are interested in reading more about any of these countries, click on one of the links below and it will take you to a page with articles and links to photo galleries from that country.

• Turkmenistan
• Uzbekistan
• Kazakhstan
• Kyrgyzstan
• Tajikistan

If you would like to cut to the chase, check out our Golden Camel Awards series to find out the best and worst of Central Asian food and markets, logistics and sights and scenery.

If this region doesn’t interest you in the least, read about one of the other regions we’ve traveled through (e.g., the Caucasus or Southeast Asia) or browse our photo gallery.

We are eager to share some of our recent experiences in Myanmar, but much of our focus will be on China, including more articles and photos from the western frontier of Kashgar to the booming Olympic-frenzied capital of Beijing. Qingdao and Shanghai rounded out our first visit to China in 2007; our thoughts on China, Part I will conclude there. If we can convince the Chinese authorities to grant us another visa, we will visit the southern provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan this spring to gather impressions for Part 2 of our China series.

Central Asia, we say goodbye for now.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | No comment

Best Scenery: The Pamirs
The Pamir Mountain region – from southern Kyrgyzstan to eastern Tajikistan (area around Murghab and Wakhan Valley) features truly spectacular mountain landscapes.

Most Gregarious Kids: Tbilisi, Georgia
The kids who rock the most: the kids from the Sololaki (Sololaky) neighborhood in Tbilisi, Georgia. Make sure to listen to the audio clip.
Honorable Mention: The kids in Tatev, Armenia. There’s no church tour quite like this one, where the local kids take you around their musty, pitch black little church.

Most Memorable Random Act of Kindness:
It’s a toss up between our feast in Zugdidi, Georgia and Khiva, Uzbekistan. In Khiva, an 8-months pregnant woman and her friend abandoned their table and insisted that we and our friend Dave eat their lunch. Touchingly, they fetched some tomatoes, cucumbers and bread to round out our meal.
Honorable Mention: The Kazakh family who gave us a ride to Almaty’s town center after we almost stranded ourselves in the Tian Shan Mountains.

Best Smile: Murghab, Tajikistan
This is a tough one. We’ll never forget the smiles, whether they were pearly white or glinted with gold, like the one pictured here.

Small World Award: Karakol, Kyrgyzstan
We were hosted by a woman in Karakol, Kyrgyzstan whose first visit to the U.S. happened to be to Dan’s hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Honorable Mention: Tatev, Armenia (near the Iranian border)
Our home-stay family featured a woman whose daughter now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and works at the same place Dan’s sister worked at over 10 years ago. Our Armenian host flipped through photo album pages that chronicled her recent visit to Northern California, including Monterey, California where Audrey got her MBA.

Best City – Tbilisi, Georgia
The city whose people, neighborhoods and history won our hearts.
Honorable Mention: Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan for a little bit of the laid back in Central Asia.

Best Donkeys: Tajikistan’s Wakhan Valley
“Why Donkeys?” you ask? Melancholy (think Eeyore) and under-appreciated, these animals mark a nostalgic trail to the past from today’s rapidly developing world.

If Kashgar were included it would win due to its vast donkey parking lots. Since Kashgar is technically part of China, however, the prize goes to Tajikistan’s Wakhan Valley which featured large gatherings of these under-appreciated beasts of burden. When a group rounds the bend with the Hindu Kush in the background, it just doesn’t get any better for us donkey lovers.

Best Cemetery: Mizdakhan near Nukus, Uzbekistan
We really enjoyed cemeteries throughout this region. They were places of unusual beauty, benevolent tranquility and much-needed reflection. Central Asian cemeteries are fascinating, none more so than Mizdakhan outside of Nukus in western Uzbekistan.

Best Museum: Savitsky Museum – Nukus Uzbekistan
Nukus is an unlikely location for an art museum, which is exactly the reason why Savitsky managed to put together a museum of banished art from the Soviet Union there. Rounding out the museum is an ethnography exhibition on the Karakalpakstan region in western Uzbekistan.

Honorable Mention: State Historical Museum – Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Once called the Lenin Museum, the State Historical Museum still features a Lenin shrine on the second floor. Make sure you look up to take in the ceiling murals of Lenin leading people to liberation in the Bolshevik Revolution. The third floor features a man riding a nuclear warhead. Strangely Dr. Strangelove.

Best Camels: Turkmenistan
183 of them herding near Gonur Depe and 100s of others skulking about in the Karakum Desert of Turkmenistan.
Honorable Mention: To the lone and peaceful wooly Bactrian camel (with a fallen hump) on the road between Murghab and Langar in Tajikistan’s Pamir Mountains. Go and visit him. He could use the company.

Best Lenin Statue: Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
We considered sending an official invitation to the governments of the ‘Stans for formal submissions, but alas we ran out of time on our visas. Our favorite in this category is the Lenin statue in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan whose base features traditional Turkmen carpet designs. Vladimir Ilyich’s head often serves as a bird lavatory and his arms as bird posts.

Best Place to Catch a Wedding: Shakhrisabz, Uzbekistan
We were engulfed in a sea of revelers and it felt like a carnival. Before we knew it, we were having our photos taken with the bride and groom and a horde of friendly strangers.

Longest Limousines: Almaty, Kazkahstan
The longer the limousine, the longer the marriage? If so, the couple inside of this this Hummer limousine has a record-breaking one ahead of them. “It’s like driving a school bus,” the chauffeur told us.

Best Dressed (Women): Turkmenistan
Dressed in floor-length, brightly colored dresses with colorful neck embroidery, Turkmen women seem to glide as they walk. Their colorful scarves were pretty spiffy, too.

Best Hat: The Kyrgyz Kalpak
Lively competition including Lahic hats, Turkmen head-covers, and Muslim headwear, but the prize goes to all the Kyrgyz men who emphatically extoll the virtues of the Kyrgyz kalpak: keeps cool in summer, stays warm in winter, and sheds water to boot.

Best Soviet Architectural Aesthetic: Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Although it may be criminal in some circles to follow the word “Soviet” with the word “aesthetic,” Tashkent is as admirable as a completely Soviet built city could possibly be. For the historically curious, Tashkent was completely rebuilt after it was leveled by an earthquake in 1966.

Best Religious Buildings:
Best Church: Svititskhoveli, outside of Tbilisi, Georgia
The incense, the ritual, the people. The atmosphere there is transcendent.
Best Monastery: Sapara near Akhaltsikhe, Georgia
Nestled in a beautiful forest and mountain setting, monastic life doesn’t seem to get any more peaceful than Sapara. If you go, ask for George, the friendly English-speaking monk who is more than happy to show you around.
Best Mosque: Karakol, Kyrgyzstan
We’re certain to catch some flack for not choosing one of the Silk Road Mosques, but our most lasting impressions in this sub-category belong to the Chinese-style Mosque in Karakol, Kyrgyzstan and the friendly, talkative imam who minds it.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 6 comments

Worst Toilet: Svaneti Region of Georgia
Competition in this category was exceptionally fierce, but the nod goes to Svaneti. Although we highly recommend a visit to the region, we suggest you pack your hip waders for visits to the outhouse.
The irony here is that Georgia is endowed with river upon river of spectacularly flowing water, particularly in the mountains. None of that water runs in the direction of the toilets, however. We won’t mention specific villages. After all, we would like you to visit and patronize the people who live there.

One outhouse seemed to be inadvertently booby trapped with some kind of poop catapult by way of a loose board that would flip and flop like a seesaw as one exited and entered the shack. There’s a patent pending on this unique design.

Just down the road (cue the horror film soundtrack), you know you are in trouble when the base of the outhouse throbs, writhes and pulses with life (i.e., maggots), almost to the point of being able to take a walk down the road. And they say there is no such thing as perpetual motion. Bah! This outhouse is on the move – it will never die.

Outhouse with the Best View: Tajikistan
The prize goes to this pleasantly airy mud hut near the Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border. Temperatures well below zero discourage lingering.

Most Creative Toilet: Bus Stop near Taraz, Kazakhstan
Squat pots are separated only by foot-high privacy barriers and a little boy sweeps around you, mid-business. Truly bizarre.

OK, enough of the toilet talk. No more…at least until we resume writing about China.

Most Absurdly and Ironically-Named Post-Soviet Agency: Dushanbe, Tajikistan
We hadn’t planned an award in this category, but Tajikistan’s “Agency of State Financial Control and Struggle with Corruption” begged us to create one. To fully comprehend the irony, come to Tajikistan and experience the bureaucratic abyss that is this country. We didn’t get a photo of this winner because the hordes of militia on the streets of Dushanbe simply wouldn’t allow it.

Best Travel Tip for Central Asia: “Pack your own Lada window cranks.”
Virtually all Ladas, especially the Soviet-era relics, feature windows whose cranks are missing their handles. Imagine this in a car with no air conditioning in the 40 C (100+ F) degree heat.

Worst Accommodation: Ismaili, Azerbaijan
To describe the Hotel Ismaili in Ismaili, Azerbaijan as “pestilential” is beyond generous. This pit of human despair cries out for the wrecking ball and represents the worst accommodation value in the history of traveling man. The Lonely Planet says this is the better of the two options in town; we break out in fungus and bed rash just thinking about the other option. Two-seat rows plucked from a defunct local Soviet-era cinema take turns soaking and dry-rotting out front as victims take in the surroundings and down beer served by a mistreated 10-year-old indentured servant. We’re not even going to begin to describe the toilets. Shhh, don’t speak. Survival at The Hostel, from the film so named, would be a better bet. All this for $25/night.

Best Postal Experience: Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Although it functioned much like the Pony Express and the counter woman preferred an abacus to her old computer, the Uzbek Post got our Turkmen camel shawl to the United States in 10 days. What put Tashkent in the lead for this award: the postal woman hand-sewed a burlap sack with our contents inside and then sealed the whole thing with numerous hot wax stamps. Now that’s postal nostalgia.

Apologies to our friend Dave who arrived at the post office with a 50-lb. backpack of stuff to send, only to find that he couldn’t send money or coins, regardless of their age; newspapers and print material could be sent, but only from the Tashkent post office branch across town; something else couldn’t be sent until Monday. The remaining items had to be separated into two kilogram parcels. Do your sanity a favor and only send postcards or hangings that fit in small burlap bags from here.

Worst Postal Experience: Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Though Georgian kindness is missing in the downtown Tbilisi branch of the Georgian Post and Kazakhstan’s postal police are always on guard, postal pall finds a comfortable home in Bishkek. The women who work the parcel post office there have a Catch-22 style routine that would make Vladimir Putin cry (perhaps with pride). Imagine Three-Card Monte being played with your package. After taking two hours to wrap 2 parcels, the woman informed us that the string she used to tie it would vault us into the next pricing tier – and cost us $35 more. After unwrapping the insides (we had a special wedding box made for $5 and 90 minutes of excruciating labor across the street), we had to tear the whole thing open. The wedding gift arrived in 2 weeks. The other packages, also sent by air mail, didn’t arrive for 3 months. Save yourself the tears and leave the country if you need to send a package.

Best Tourist Infrastructure: Kyrgyzstan
Whether you’d like to arrange a tour or do it all yourself, Community Based Tourism (CBT) Kyrgyzstan efficiently dishes out information and can help anyone assemble an authentic and satisfying experience complete with home stays, horse treks and mountain treks.
Honorable Mention: If anyone wants to see a thorough, slick, information-rich tourist bureau with informed employees, check out the Armenian Tourist Bureau in Yerevan.

Worst Men’s Haircut: Yerevan, Armenia
It’s almost always true what they say: you get what you pay for. And for 500 Armenian Dram ($1.70 at the time), Dan received the worst haircut of his life. Well, maybe his first haircut in Prague was worse (where he had to guide the hairdresser’s scissors hair-by-hair back over the damage she’d done). Anyhow, he doesn’t recommend a visit to the hair butcher at the Yerevan bus station for their Armensky variant (Armenian variation), unless you happen to be bald and are interested in some fascinating conversation with the locals.

Best Men’s Haircut: Almaty, Kazakhstan
When Dan was in desperate need to be relieved of the outgrowth of his Armensky variant he consulted a Kazakh friend in Almaty. Four dollars, a spasm of anxiety and a surprising amount of attention to each hair later, all was done and done well.

Most Terrifying Shave: Lahic, Azerbaijan
If you come across this man in Lahic, wave, chat, smile. Do whatever, but by no means should you get into his barber chair. He’s friendly enough, but a shave by him will leave you plagued with flashbacks. The guillotine is a cleaner cut. To make matters worse, he has an arsenal of powders, gels and other foul-smelling tonic that he’ll apply to the battle scene once he’s finished.

After having his neck gored, Dan forbid the barber to cut his hair. The man obeyed and instead saturated it with some kind of greasy tonic and comb-styled it in the fashion of the latest Azerbaijani butt-cut. No photos please!

Best Flight: Tajik Air from Khorog to Dushanbe in Tajikistan
Though the bureaucracy and ticket purchasing process were laughable, the Tajik Air flight from Khorog to Dushanbe qualifies as the most thrilling and terrifying flight…of our lives. Hair-raising!

Worst Roads: Murghab to Langar, Pamir Mountains, Tajikistan
We wonder if these coarse boulder-strewn paths even qualify as roads. There were times we thought we would tumble over the hill out of Tajikistan and into Afghanistan.
Honorable Mention: Road between Ushguli and Mestia in Georgia.
When we walked this road, we were certain it couldn’t possibly be the same road that carried cars. Appropriate for sure-footed cows maybe, but not automobiles.

Worst Drivers: Georgia
Somewhere between self-destruction and machismo, a road is carved for sadistic Georgian drivers whose driving habits have the ability to transform an atheist into a believer.

Best Internet Connections: Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Although other travelers may argue with us, the best connectivity in former Soviet Central Asia goes to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Given the government’s penchant for censorship and the formidable internet controls in the western parts of the country, we were shocked by the plentiful, inexpensive, and reliable internet and wifi cafes in Tashkent.

Worst Visa Bureaucracy
Every country in the region shares this award equally, with the exception of Georgia (90-day, no fee visa) and Armenia (easy $30 visa at the border). Turkmenistan, a country in which an extended visit is impossible without going through a travel agent, serves as the living definition of bureaucratic opacity.

Most Egregious Rip-off: National Bank of Uzbekistan, Urgench branch
Never let your guard down, particularly when things are supposed to be “official.”

Best Train: Bukhara to Samarkand, Uzbekistan
The morning express train is inexpensive and delightfully undelapidated. Even though the train ticket buying process (and prices) are foggy, journeys are relatively inexpensive. You get a ride on a smooth express train, air conditioning, television (including a disturbing show that features pre-pubescent belly-dancing girls) and edible food.

Most Creative Train Ticket: Uzbekistan
We just LOVE the way they cut around the corners to tell you how much you just paid.

Hottest Location: Gonur Depe, Turkmenistan
Upwards of 50 degrees Celsius and dry as the bones we kicked up under our feet

Coldest Location: Sary Tash, Kyrgyzstan
-15 Celsius and brutal winds that carve red streaks in innocent cheeks

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | No comment

Although there’s no shortage of internet cafes in capital cities throughout the Caucasus and Central Asia, almost none of them would allow us to hook up our laptop directly, leaving us stuck with video game and virus laden computers lacking sufficient memory. Reasonably-priced wifi (wireless internet) is hard to come by. Five-star hotels charging exorbitant hourly fees (over $15/hour in some cases) were typically the only wifi options available to us.

Staying connected becomes especially maddening when connections drag as you move away from the capital cities and government-sponsored internet censorship controls take over. With a little patience, perseverance and quality information, however, it is possible to stay connected and get some things accomplished without breaking the bank or sacrificing your sanity.

For casual readers and those seeking the exotic, we understand that this post may not provide an exhilarating reading experience. For those seeking to stay connected in the Caucasus and Central Asia, we hope you find it useful. We wish something like this was available to us before we made our way through the region.

For each location, we’ve provided information on where to find internet cafes and restaurants offering reliable free wifi, and how to buy SIM cards for your mobile phone.

Georgia – Tbilisi
Internet Cafés in Tbilisi charge 2-4 Lari per hour ($1.30 – $2.30). Unfortunately, internet connections and electricity are not particularly reliable. Our internet café of choice on Rustaveli Street north of Rustaveli metro station allowed us to connect our laptops directly. Look for the internet sign on the left side of the street just after the covered walkway. The internet cafe is up a dimly lit set of stairs. From what we could tell, it stays open all night for late night gamers.

Wifi in Tbilisi: Café Sans Souci had good wireless, ample plugs, and a nice atmosphere at Shavteli 13. Unfortunately, the second time we traveled through Tbilisi, the cafe had a most unfortunate run-in with a wrecking ball and was being demolished before our eyes. We heard it was going to be rebuilt.

Nearby, Kala Cafe (8/10 Erekle II Street) is supposed to offer free wifi.

If you stay at Hotel Charm, Nino will let you use her computer or allow you to hook the LAN cable directly into your laptop.

Other information on Tbilisi internet cafes can be found here.

Mobile Phones in Georgia: We purchased a Magti SIM card from a street kiosk for 10 Georgian Lari/GEL ($7), including 5 GEL of credit. A few minutes later we were making phone calls and sending SMSs. SIM top-up cards were easy to find throughout the country. The quality of coverage was also impressive, running strong into the high Caucasus mountains of Svaneti.

Armenia – Yerevan
Internet Cafés in Yerevan: They are plentiful and charge 400-500 dram ($1.25-$160) per hour, making it easy to check email and do basic internet work. Unfortunately, directly connecting your laptop is anathema to the folks running them. The smoke-filled environments also shaved several days off our lives.

For free and friendly internet, try the wonderful Yerevan Tourism Center on Nalbandyan Street behind Republic Square. Not only is the internet free there, but it was the only place in the country that allowed us to connect our laptops directly. We felt a little silly doing work there as tourists milled about, but you gotta’ do what you gotta’ do.

Wifi in Yerevan: Hotels advertise wifi, but read the fine print; rates normally exceed $10/hour.

Mobile Phones in Armenia: An Armentel Go SIM card bought at a street-side kiosk for 1200 Dram ($4) will give you 800 in credit. SMS services need to be activated separately. Top-up cards are available just about everywhere, but the automated menu for recharging is only in Armenian. Ask an Armenian friend or a local on the street to help you to avoid extreme frustration.

Azerbaijan – Baku
Internet Cafés in Baku are not on every corner, but are easy enough to find. Rates ranged from 0.80 to 2 Manat ($1-$2.50) per hour. Connecting a laptop directly is not understood and therefore prohibited.

Wifi in Baku: Aroma Café at 18 U. Hajibeyov Street serves an authentic espresso (or machiatto, if you like) and has speedy, reliable wifi to boot. The coffee is not cheap, but the wait staff doesn’t rush you, enabling a pleasant, lingering online working experience.
Bonus: Watch the nouveau riche Russian blondes strut their stuff on their way to and from nearby boutiques.

Mobile Phones in Azerbaijan: We bought an Azercell SIM card for 5 Manat ($6), with 3 or 4 manat of credit included. Our Azerbaijani friend used his ID card to buy our Azercell SIM card. Otherwise, foreigners must purchase theirs from the Azercell head office in downtown Baku.

Turkmenistan – Ashgabat
Internet Cafés in Turkmenistan: A visit to Turkmenistan for internet access is not recommended. However, internet is available and we expect the presence of internet cafés to grow, particularly in Ashgabat. Outside of Ashgabat, be prepared for frustration. Internet is technically available at post offices around the country, but waiting forty minutes to open an email may just drive you insane.

Internet Cafés in Ashgabat: The internet café around the corner from Four Points Alkatin hotel (near the old circus) was relatively fast and even allowed us to access the BBC website. Rates are around $5-$6 per hour. Bring your passport along, as all internet users must be logged.

Uzbekistan – Nukus, Samarkand, Bukhara, and Tashkent
Unfortunately, internet controls seem to be growing instead of shrinking. If you happen to be armed with a list of proxy servers, it’s still possible to get around online.

Internet Cafés in Tashkent: To our surprise, Tashkent has a strong network of wifi cafes (see them listed at www.wi-fi.uz). Our favorite places included Café Bourgeois on Rustaveli Street (not far from Hotel Orzu). The service there includes good lattes, sweet smiles and no pressure. Similarly, the Korean restaurant at the corner of Rustaveli and Glinka Streets provides a good experience. During the day, they’ll even give you your own private Tatami-style room to enjoy your bibimbap while you surf.

Internet Cafés in Nukus: Give it a try if you like. After 20 minutes, you might be able to see your inbox. As for viewing your messages, forget it. It’s even worse than having no connection at all.

Internet Cafés in Samarkand and Bukhara: Better than Nukus, but not quite Tashkent speeds. The closer you get to Tashkent, the better the internet connectivity. Easy to find in the main tourist areas for around 2000 som ($1.50) per hour.

Mobile Phones and SIM cards in Uzbekistan: Given the Uzbek penchant for censoring the airwaves, we expected to provide passport details to buy a SIM card, if we would even be allowed to buy one at all. No worries. We just chose a provider (Beeline) and a telephone number, handed our money over (about $7, $5 of which was credit) and off we went. Beeline does not allow you to send SMS messages abroad and some people had trouble contacting us from European numbers. It’s not perfect, but it’s sufficient for calling local numbers.

Kazakhstan – Almaty
Internet Cafés and Wifi in Almaty: We were fortunate enough to stay with a friend who had ADSL in his apartment, but the Il Patio pizza and sushi chain restaurants all seem to offer free wifi.

Kyrgyzstan – Bishkek, Karakol, Kochkor
Internet Cafés in Bishkek: The yellow and black “Bee” internet cafes are pretty reliable and stay open late. We used the one around the corner near the post office. The cost is normally under $1 per hour.
Wifi in Bishkek: Several cafes and restaurants advertise wifi for around $6-$10 per hour.

Internet Cafés in Karakol: Beware of the internet cafes that charge by bandwidth (based on how much you surf and download). This is a very expensive method to discover what bandwidth hogs basic services like Flickr and Gmail can be.

Internet Cafés in Kochkor: If you have serious internet business, take a shared taxi to Balykchy and check out “HARD” internet café.

Mobile Phones and SIM Cards in Kyrgyzstan: We bought a Bitel SIM card for around $6. It served us well for in-country SMS messages and phone calls. You can recharge with a top-up card or go to one of the thousands of kiosks charging the number through a computer terminal. Some kiosks charge a small commission while others are free. Remarkably convenient.

Tajikistan – Dushanbe and Khorog
Internet Cafés in Dushanbe: There are several internet cafés on Rudaki Street, Dushanbe’s main drag. Speeds were OK, but aging computers tended to behave strangely. Cost is around $1 per hour.

Internet cafés in Khorog: The Khorog (the regional capital of the Pamirs) main post office features a decent internet café. Computers are a bit old, but they do the job. One machine even had a University of Virginia (Audrey’s alma mater) asset tag bar code on it. We tried to imagine the computer’s journey from a donation pile in Charlottesville, Virginia to an internet cafe in Khorog, Tajikistan. Another lesson in long journeys across small worlds.

Mobile Phones and SIM Cards in Tajikistan: We purchased a Beeline SIM card in Khorog for around $8 ($5 of credit included). The SIM card didn’t work at first, but a Beeline shop in Dushanbe managed to sort out the problem for us. After that, our Beeline SIM card worked fine for in-country calls and SMS messages.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | One comment

I thought Americans liked to travel in comfort. I don’t know why you take a marshrutka.

You should take the marshrutka. There you will meet the real people.

– Two competing local views on whether or not we should subject ourselves to long-distance rides on marshrutka minivans, the dominant form of public transport in the Caucasus and Central Asia.

So there we were. Dan was eating his knees again, sitting on a plastic stool inches off the floor of a packed minivan in the middle of Kyrgyzstan and absorbing looks from a perplexed and curious crowd. Audrey was trying to brush off the drunken advances of yet another admirer.

Moments before, the late afternoon autumn sun was speeding towards the horizon and we had been trying to flag down transport- any transport – for over an hour. When a marshrutka stopped, we were thankful to squeeze into the last two slivers of space remaining inside. We were headed home for the night after all.

Scenes like this played themselves out repeatedly over the course of our journey through the Caucasus and Central Asia. As a result, we cultivated a love-hate relationship with public transportation. On one hand, it’s the most inexpensive option going. On the other hand, it can be cramped to the point of discomfort. More importantly, however, public transport is the way most people get around. If one hopes to meet locals, a public bus or – even better – an intimate (i.e., cramped) minivan is the place to do it, as it literally offers an up-close and personal means of connecting with real people.

Marshrutka and its Meaning
We have often used the word marshrutka in our previous posts from the Caucasus and Central Asia. Loosely defined in English as a minivan taxi, its literal meaning in Russian is something akin to “planned path.” It’s a minivan that follows a route, picking up and dropping off passengers at fixed and ad hoc stops along the way.

As long as there is breathing room in the marshrutka, the driver will stop to let someone in, which often means collecting passengers at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. We were those lost passengers on several occasions and were repeatedly thankful for the existence of an informal and efficient system that allowed us to safely flag down a ride just about anywhere.

While we enjoy the flow and rhythm of marshrutkas, the journeys that they embark on can sometimes prove physically challenging: lack of space, uncomfortable temperatures, and long distances are the norm. The discomfort can often be compensated for by enlightening and humorous interactions with local people. Fascination with the exotic runs both ways and shyness often yields to curiosity, resulting in some unusual conversations. Locals always get a kick out of seeing some big westerners climb into their marshrutka with backpacks half their size.

But since this is a public experience, a shared experience, the story goes beyond “people are what they drive.” Marshrutkas know an etiquette, protocol and narrative all their own. They fit to the culture. In Georgia, for example, the hospitality for which the country is renowned naturally fills the marshrutka; strangers there almost always fed us snacks or gave us their better seats. In Kyrgyzstan, family-centric culture emerges as other female passengers assist boarding mothers with their children, scooping them up and having them sit on their laps until the mother settles in. In Armenia and Azerbaijan, politics and disputed regions often dominate the cramped airwaves.

Highlights and Lowlights
We’ve already written about some of our favorite marshrutka or shared taxi experiences; Zugdidi to Mestia in Georgia and Lake Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan stand out as cultural highlights. On the other hand, we’ve also had some trying journeys, including one that we thought we wouldn’t survive (Mestia to Tbilisi in Georgia) and another that we thought would never end (Bishkek to Osh in Kyrgyzstan).

In our marshrutka experiences, it was not unusual for a woman or group of women to adopt us at the beginning of the journey and play guardian to the disoriented tourists. They’d ask us where we were headed and would ensure that the driver dropped us off at our desired destination. Particularly since we were often unfamiliar with where we were headed, it was nice to be taken care of. Our guardians would often ply us with fruit and other snacks and the questions they asked us would serve to connect us to other curious passengers. Several women gave us their phone numbers just in case we ran into trouble and needed help. We even had an entire marshrutka singing traditional songs for us. We were rarely ever bored.

One word of advice about traveling on a marshrutka: if you happen to end up next to a drunk man whose eyes are glazed over with three layers of cheap vodka in the middle of the afternoon and he decides to become overly friendly, look for the nearest grandmother and ask for help. She’ll give the man a good verbal lashing and he’ll normally sink back into his seat or skulk off the bus at the next opportunity. Not only can Audrey confirm that this method is tried and true, but we later learned that it’s also outlined in Kyrgyzstan Peace Corps Training for new arrivals. Based on our experience, finding a grandmother or older woman wherever and whenever you are in trouble is a good rule of thumb.

Overland Ideology and Reflection
There are myriad reasons for the presence of an “overland ideology” in long-term and adventure travel. Eschewing airplanes, overlanders not only seek to claim a victory over the challenges of the landscape by traveling continuously over it, but many of them seek to witness “the clicks” or changes – sometimes abrupt, often gradual – that cultures, people and land undergo as one travels on the ground.

There are endless levels at which to engage with a culture. The choice you make regarding your style of travel will obviously influence the type of experiences you’ll have and the types of people you’ll meet. We are not masochists, but the interactive benefits of marshrutkas make the hours of knee-eating or seat-sharing with a stinking sack of pickled vegetables nearby worthwhile. If you fly over or drive through a place by your own private transport, what you may gain in comfort, you may sacrifice in richness and granularity of cultural experience.

Unfortunately, “marshrutka advisor” is not a highly sought-after experience these days, but maybe we can position our newfound ability of securing the best seat and fitting in with a group of singing Kyrgyz families as some sort of cross-cultural expertise. It’s all how you spin it, right?

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 2 comments

• Uzbek-Tajik relations = bad, therefore obtaining a Tajik visa at the Tajik Embassy in Tashkent = hell
• Kyrgyz-Tajik relations = good, therefore obtaining a Tajik visa at the Tajik Embassy in Bishkek = heaven

If you would like to visit the Pamir Mountains, then you will need a GBAO permit in addition to your Tajik visa. Luckily, it is now possible to obtain both at the same time.

The Tajik Consul in Bishkek gets the award for the friendliest Consul in Central Asia. He not only helped us fill out our visa applications (which did not require a Letter of Invitation) but he also filled out the GBAO permit application for us and ensured that every possible Pamir Mountain and Wakhan Valley location was included. Oh, and he treated us like humans. It’s somewhat sad, actually, that receipt of humane treatment can be cause for celebration. It’s equally sad how scant both respect and courtesy are in Central Asia’s bureaucratic offices.

Take, for instance, the chaos that surrounds the Tajik Embassy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. There, even ethnic Tajiks with Uzbek passports find it difficult to apply for visas to visit their relatives just over the border. Clouds of humanity can fill a city block; several people we had spoken to had been waiting there most of the week. A few entrepreneurial 10-year-old boys run a photocopy machine and distribute visa application forms across the street.

When you arrive in Tajikistan, you are supposed to register at OVIR within three days. We tried to do this in Murghab, the first Tajik town we stayed in, but the office had run out of forms. We were forced to register in Khorog instead. The woman at the Murghab OVIR office was very kind, though. She noted our passport details and said she would call ahead to the military checkpoints along the road to ensure we didn’t have any problems. While we trusted her, we had visions of young military recruits hassling and extorting our passage through their checkpoints. We asked the woman to write us a note, indicating our passport details and explaining why we didn’t have our OVIR registration cards. For added assurance, we asked her to affix it with an official OVIR stamp. As informal as the document was, it was rather impressive. We showed it several times at the checkpoints on the way to Khorog and never had any problems. Bureaucracy always knows the value of the stamp.

Upon arrival in Khorog we spent a morning running between OVIR, photocopy shops and the bank. The registration fee is around $20 per person, paid at the bank next door. Electricity, paper and toner are all in inconveniently short supply, so you may have to make multiple visits until you get someone with all three.

Cost:
Tajikistan Visa: $60 per person, includes 30-day, single-entry tourist visa and GBAO permit (needed for the Pamirs).
Tajikistan OVIR Registration: Around $20 per person.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 4 comments

If you are flying into Bishkek, don’t bother to get your visa in advance. Visas on arrival are cheaper at the airport.

If you wish to extend your stay in Kyrgyzstan, that’s a different story. Open, friendly Kyrgyzstan can turn into a maddening Soviet cat’s cradle of bureaucracy.

Entering Kyrgyzstan when our visa was already half-expired, and wanting to stay longer than our visa allowed, we decided to extend it in the town of Karakol near Lake Issyk-Kul. We went to Karakol’s OVIR (Office of Visas and Registration) one week prior to the expiration dates on our visas, only to be told by the official that we were two days early. He suggested we return two days later and pay the extension fee; everything would be OK. We felt reassured; we didn’t need to return to Bishkek for the extension and we had time to enjoy a few days on the southern shore of Lake Issyk-Kul.

Returning to OVIR several days later, we found a cloud of locals waiting patiently outside the locked door of the OVIR office. Being impatient Americans, we knocked on all the closed doors in search of someone who could help us. The junior secretary told us that the head OVIR official was on a business trip to Bishkek. We explained that the official himself had told us to come back that day. After some shrugs and an explanation that he alone held the keys to the safe that protected the precious visa stamps, the secretary told us to come back the next day. We went out and delivered the bad news to the locals whose misery we shared. Everyone shuffled off, looking dejected but not surprised. “Another wasted day at the OVIR office in Karakol,” was written in the lines of their faces. Apparently, this was the norm.

A similar story played itself out the next day, except that everyone’s anxiety level had risen. It was Friday and our visas were set to expire on Sunday. In her broken Russian, Audrey appealed to another itinerant military official, “What we should do – continue to wait for the official to return or catch a bus immediately for Bishkek?” He advised us to return that afternoon. “Things work differently in your country than in our country. It’s more flexible here. Don’t worry.”

We knew that the “flexibility” he spoke of would evaporate the moment our visas expired; in its place would be fines and bribes. Upon returning to the office that afternoon, we were told the official was driving back and would come into the office on Saturday morning. Saturday, normal working hours for government??

To our surprise and relief, the official did indeed show up on Saturday morning. Everything went remarkably smoothly until it came down to payment. The amount he told us we owed for the extension kept fluctuating, filling us with suspicion. Because it was Saturday, we could not make payment at the bank, as recommended by the folks at Community Based Tourism in Karakol (corruption is rampant, they said). Instead, we asked for handwritten proof of payment. The official refused and quipped with a hint of a threat in his voice that the banks would be open on Monday but he might not be there. He had us. He knew it and he forced our hand. We handed over the money to remain in his country legally and his behavior assured us that he would likely pocket some drinking money on the side.

As we watched him write our new visas by hand, we noticed a CCCP sign above the TV. How appropriate, we thought. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

All the locals with whom we shared this story gave empathic nods. They had all been through the same, if not worse, each time they required a new document or an official stamp. Enduring this once was difficult enough for us, but the dejected faces of the locals queued in that dimly lit hallway indicated that for them there was no end in sight.

Cost:
Kyrgyzstan Visa: $55/person for 30-day, single-entry tourist visa from an embassy; if purchased on arrival at the airport, $35 for the same visa. Multiple-entry and 60-day visas are also available at the airport for around $55.
Kyrgyzstan Visa Extension: We paid 1560 som/person ($40) for a 20-day extension of our tourist visa. We don’t know if that is the normal price or a price with “special fees” included.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 2 comments

While most people don’t travel to the Caucasus and Central Asia solely to explore the cuisine, we had our share of pleasant eating experiences there. We also occasionally felt the wrath of a post-Soviet culinary hangover. If you are interested to know what constitutes a good eating experience (heavenly bread, drinkable vodka, and elusive vegetables) or what continues to haunt our food dreams, read on.

Three questions you may be asking yourself:

Q: Do camels really have good eyesight?
A: Probably not, but the title seems like a catchy and appropriate one for the series.

Q: Are there camels in the Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan)?
A: We suppose there may be a stray camel or two here and there throughout the Caucasus region, but camels are really a Central Asian fixture.

Q: So why include the Caucasus in a survey called the Golden Camel Awards?
A: As we identified highlights of our journey through Central Asia, our experiences in the Caucasus continually kept creeping into the discussion. We also tend to view our travels through the Caucasus and Central Asia together as one regional set of experiences (much like we do our experiences in Southeast Asia). Although the countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus differ from one another in many ways, they all share some common features because they are post-Soviet Asian states.

Without further ado, let’s eat!

Best Market: Osh, Kyrgyzstan
This was a difficult choice with competitors like Ashgabat’s colorful Tolkuchka Bazaar in the running. However, Osh’s sprawling market wins with an overwhelming diversity and abundance of just about everything, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, and ethnicities.
Honorable Mention: Telavi, Georgia.
The quirky main market in Georgia’s Khakheti region features the best in diversity that the Caucasus has to offer and will leave you mildly nostalgic for the days of yore. Good-looking produce and gregarious people (Georgians, Azeris, and Armenians among others), too.

Best Fruit: Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan wins for its immaculate grapes and fresh figs, whose taste could only be made better if they came with a harem in tow.
Honorable Mention: Turkmenistan, the melon capital of the universe. Turkmenistan features a national holiday to celebrate and honor the fruit so near and dear to the hearts of its countrymen.

Best Milk Product: matsoni (yogurt) from Svaneti, Georgia
The fresh, overnight yogurt sensation is fantastic throughout Georgia, but Svaneti is the place where it approaches the sublime. The best yogurt, by the way, comes from the same house that features the worst toilet. No kidding…and hopefully no connection.

On a serious note, it’s difficult to express how stiff the competition is in this category. Milk products throughout the Caucasus and Central Asia were so fresh that they literally redefined our taste program. Yogurt will never be the same again. Are you wondering why we are so excited by yogurt? It was often the only non-meat item on offer.

Most Questionable Food Hygiene: a Ramadan goat feast – in its entirety – at Kyrgyzstan’s Song Kul Lake. We cannot get that man’s grotty, leathery hands out of our minds…and he couldn’t keep them out of our food!

Best Plov: Flamingo Café in Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Just across the street from Hotel Orzu. Approximately $1 gets you a tomato salad and a beautiful plate of freshly cooked wedding plov (the variety which includes not only carrots and meat, but also chick peas and a few raisins for good measure). The rice is not too oily and the meat is sparse and delightfully lean.

Best Vodka: Turkmenistan
It’s unlikely that we’ll ever claim to be vodka experts. Most local vodka tastes downright awful. That is, until we tried Turkmenistan’s wheat vodka. The Arslan brand (named so because it makes one feel like a lion after just one shot) is smooth, remarkably drinkable and best consumed while contemplating the viability of Turkmenistan’s 1,270 square mile man-made lake in the middle of the Karakum Desert.

Most Bizarre Menu Item: Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Leave it to an oddly translated menu at a Chinese restaurant to serve up “frog paws” and “shark lips.”

Best Meat: Lali’s shashlik in Kakheti, Georgia.
She said it would be the best shashlik we’d ever had, and she was right. No sauce – just pork, salt, and pepper. Oh, and copious fresh vegetables, a five-liter gas can of brown wine, two drunk Kakhetians and a guitar.
Honorable Mention: Deniz Patisserie café, Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan
Iskender Kebab – think kebab (chunks of spiced meat, not the ground stuff) topped with yogurt and thin strips of bread.

Best Indian Food: Yerevan, Armenia
The Indian food at the restaurant on Tumanyan Street behind the Opera House is tasty and spicy; they offer a broad array of Indian food, not just the typical Punjabi gravy train favorites. Their food qualifies as the best Indian food we had tasted in five months.

Best Ice Cream: Tbilisi, Georgia.
Just beyond the covered area at Rustaveli metro station (in the opposite direction of McDonald’s) lay a hole in the wall that serves up creamy relief from the summer heat.
Honorable Mention: Nukus, Uzbekistan.
The ice cream man at the back of the market pleads no contest when it comes to “who’s the creamiest”, but his soft serve is pretty good and a steal at $0.10 a cone.

Most Mysterious Meat: all throughout Central Asia
There’s nothing like digging into a somsa and finding a bunch of onions and heaps of fat chunks and mystery meat fresh from the grinder. Aside from the dough in which it is encased, a Central Asian somsa can be absolutely inedible, unless you happen to be starving on the steppe.

Best Central Asian Meal: Malikjon Guest House in Bukhara, Uzbekistan
Whether you call it hunon or oromo (as the Uzbeks and Kyrgyz do, respectively), this ring-shaped stuffed pastry made from mats of dough rolled into a roulette is the essence of refined Central Asian cuisine and is delicious when served with a side of chaka (thick plain yogurt). Place it in the context of a delicious meal including eggplant salad, sweet seedless grapes, fresh soft figs and homemade kefir (mildly sour yogurt drink) and you have the spectacular $4/person spread which appeared at our table courtesy of the mother and daughter sweeties at the Malikjon Guest House in Bukhara, Uzbekistan.

Most Pleasant Western Eating Oasis: California Café in Osh, Kyrgyzstan
We didn’t say best meal or most elaborate. But, how about a pleasantly consistent cup of coffee, something resembling brunch food, or Mexican fare that comes pretty close? Don’t laugh – things like these take on added importance when it seems that all you can get is meat and bread. If you’ve traveled for an extended period of time in Central Asia, you know what we mean. Man cannot live on plov, shashlik, laghman and somsa alone. And that’s when California Café’s breakfast burritos, pizza, and pastas all come to the rescue.
Honorable Mention: The best of both worlds (eating and free wifi) at Café Bourgeois in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Lovely lattes and chicken sandwiches with fries, all while cruising the internet. The staff are incredibly friendly, too.

Best Pizza: Bistro Restaurant in Tashkent, Uzbekistan
We admit it; we do sometimes break down for a good pizza or decent glass of wine. Bistro Restaurant in Tashkent filled both requirements and served vegetables grilled in a wood fired oven. Located at Movarounnakhr 33, Tashkent.

Best Bread: Georgian tonis puri from Borjomi, Georgia
For the best of the best, try the bakery next to the Borjomi bus station. Perhaps the bread is so good because they use the local – and still revered – Borjomi water. An immaculate bread-eating experience on its own gets taken to a new level when Nutella is lathered on top.

Best Sweet: Baku, Azerbaijan
Having tasted some of Güllüoğlu baklava when it was delivered to us in Prague by a friend in Baku, we were determined visit the source. We know this is really a Turkish treat (the parent company’s home location is Istanbul, Turkey), however. At any rate, the product at their Baku outpost is lovely – not too sweet and chock-full of various ground nuts.

Best Cuisine All Around: Georgian
This is an easy call, one we make with apologies to our other friends in the Caucasus and Central Asia. The variety of dishes (especially those including vegetables) and symphony of flavors that comprise the Georgian table cannot be matched anywhere in the region. Oh, and did we mention how wonderful the bread was?

Still interested? Check out our Central Asian market video, Central Asian Markets photo set and our article on Central Asian Food.

Dig even deeper with individual country food and markets photo sets:
• Georgian Food and Markets
• Armenia: Food and Markets
• Azerbaijan: Food and Markets
• A Taste of Turkmenistan
• Uzbek Food and Markets
• Kyrgyzstan: Food and Markets

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 2 comments